Bunge Turns To Profit In Q3 - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Bunge Limited's (BG) net income available to common shareholders for the third-quarter 2014 was $284 million, compared to a loss of $165 million in the year ago quarter. On a per share basis, net income was $1.90 compared to a loss of $1.13 in the previous year.

Adjusted net income per share from continuing operations dropped to $1.31 from $1.89 last year.

Soren Schroder, Bunge's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Third-quarter results were lower than last year; however, Bunge is in a strong position to meet or exceed our full-year, combined return target of 1.5 points above cost of capital in Agribusiness and Food & Ingredients.

Net sales for the quarter were $13.676 billion lower than last year's $14.701 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.93 per share and revenues of $15.33 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company expects to have a strong fourth quarter. In Agribusiness, record U.S. harvests in combination with extremely slow farmer selling in South America and strong demand from the livestock sector have driven U.S. crush margins to historically strong levels.

In Food & Ingredients the company expects another record year. The fourth quarter is the seasonally strong holiday period when demand for flours, vegetable oils, margarines and shortenings increases. It will also have additional contributions from its performance improvement initiatives and its new wheat mills in Mexico.

In Sugar & Bioenergy, the company expects breakeven full-year segment EBIT and are managing the business to be free cash flow neutral.